The longest plane ride ever/Ryan/The Leopard Tree House

Well. Here I am. Sitting (pretty) in Durban and already loving every moment. There's a lot to catch you up on!

The Longest Plane Ride Ever:

We boarded our first plane at Logan and flew to NY. Quick flight. Once we figured out how to switch terminals we were well on our way. We waited for a bit and then boarded our second plane to Jo'berg.

15 hours, The Reader (surprisingly good), Rainman (Tom Cruise sort of sucks but Dustin Hoffman is unreal), half of Yesterday (a South African movie), some of Revolutionary Road (the book, not the movie), 4 hours of sleep, 2 South African Airways meals, and several gummy worms later we arrived in Jo'berg.

We picked up our luggage and "went through customs" (meaning we walked through a hall that had a sign on it that said CUSTOMS, I kid you not). Then a porter tried to rip us off (by expecting us to give him a $20 (yes dollar) tip) and we checked our bags and went to wait for our third plane to Durban. Our 4 and half hour layover turned into a 7 hour layover but we met plenty of friendly Americans and South Africans on the way and even made an amazing contact with a woman who works for an HIV organization here in Durban. We left a very cold and rainy Jo'berg and one hour later we arrived at this sunny paradise known as Durban! 

Now if you've been paying attention you might notice that they pronoun "we" has appeared a lot in the above description. No. I did not develop multiple personality disorder. I have a travel companion named...

Ryan:

Yes, Ryan survived the 30 hours of travel as well and managed to do so without killing me or even threatening to kill me (either I'm not as bad as I think or this guy's got patience). Ryan was a Brown undergrad (class of 2008) and now he's a Brown Med student. He has already been subject to my self-invented concoctions/explanations of things that are biological and physiological (1/4 Bio20, 1/2 Discovery Health Channel, 1/4 pure falsities) and he seems to be taking it all in stride. He's a cool dude who likes running long distances, mochi (the legit kind, not the ice cream kind), and sunshine (he's California born and bred after all). I didn't mean for this to sound like a personal ad. Oops. But ladies...he's a good one...

...and brave too. He'll be dealing with me for the next two months.

The Leopard Tree House:

No, this is not the name of a South African safari themed restaurant. The Leopard Tree House is the place I will call home for the next 8 weeks. It's a B&B in Glenwood, which is an area of Durban. I have my own apartment on the second floor. It is fully furnished and includes a kitchen/living room, a bedroom and a bathroom with a huge tub. It's pretty big for such a small person but I like it a lot and I have my own patio which overlooks the house pool (!!!!) and city center (which sort of looks like a baby LA with all its shining lights). 

I think I am going to like it just fine.

dreaming (and extremely jet-lagged),

Ivy